Well the last three months have certainly been full of interest for us and I am sure for many of you as well. We sure did get some rain during summer and the forecasters are telling us that we are going to have a lot of rain right through until June all of which makes us glad that we built on top of a hill This location, coupled with the very free draining volcanic soil that we have, does mean the we never suffer from having a lot of water lying around and we can mow our grass a few days after a deluge. There is of course a downside and that we do have to keep a lot of organic content in the soil to hold some moisture during the dry spells of winter.

Although we have had so much rain I haven’t yet noticed any signs of lawn grub damage yet but I hope I’m not speaking too soon. The last few years they have been a real problem in summer and autumn and for a long time I resisted spraying for them, but I have paid the penalty because our law now is full of weeds. I should have followed my own advice and sprayed because wherever the grass dies you can guarantee that a weed will grow in its place and that’s exactly what’s happened here.

NGIA AWARD OF MERIT AND HOW IMPORTANT IS GARDENING

I was indeed honoured when, at their National Conference on the Gold Coast, the Nursery and Garden Industry of Australia, bestowed upon me their Award of Merit. Unfortunately Bev and I were in New Zealand and as a result I was unable to accept this in person, but my good friend Bryan Hillier from Dracaena Farm Nursery accepted it on my behalf, and I am told, did a wonderful job of it.

Although we do what we do for a host of different reasons, winning awards is not one of them but when it happens it really does mean a lot. I have always been passionate about gardening and its role in the community and at times I may have trodden on a few toes of those who don’t have the same level of passion as I do. However it is something to receive recognition from the members of the national organisation that plays such an important role in making the world a better place in which to live.

I have often remarked on the fact that all of the various members of the gardening industries were the first “Greenies” on the planet, but we forgot to tell anyone. It beggars belief that despite the huge number of benefits that it bestows on the human race, gardening is so poorly recognised by politicians, bureaucrats, business leaders and the mainstream media.

I was at the recent Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show and over the five day duration more than 110,000 people attended this event, but I’ll guarantee that not one of the national TV networks, outside of Melbourne showed any of it their main news bulletins. I’d also be willing to bet that none of the newspapers outside of Melbourne carried even a few lines, let alone pictures, telling readers about this outstanding, beautiful event. Of that hundred and ten thousand plus visitors, thousands would have been from interstate and hundreds from overseas.

If a sporting event attracted that many attendees was held anywhere in the country, you can bet your last dollar that there would have been extensive coverage by all the media outlets, but because its just a gardening event it is totally neglected. I truly believe that the obsession with sport has been largely driven by the media coverage it gets and I just wish that gardening could get just a small portion of the support shown to sports.

We all remember the Burke’s Backyard TV Programme, which was one of Channel 9’s highest rating programmes, yet for some reason they opted to dump it. Now if the reason was that there was an issue between Don Burke and the management why didn’t they either try to resolve it or find another gardening programme to replace it. But what did they do – dump one of their top rating programmes and desert the hobby of gardening.

Channel 7 don’t escape my wrath either because they only give token recognition to gardening by squeezing it into their Better Homes and Gardens Show where it has to compete with cooking and home renovations. I don’t know about you but I am totally over cooking shows and I say bring on more real practical gardening shows. Channel Ten don’t recognise gardening at all, believing that it is outside their demographic group, but I’d like to tell them that I know that a heck of a lot of young people are becoming interested in growing their own fruit and vegetables and they’d love a gardening TV Show.  Thank heavens for the ABC and Gardening Australia.

It’s interesting to note that even in New Zealand, which is certainly more of a gardening nation than we are, there is no TV gardening show either.

 NEW GOVERNMENT FOR QUEENSLAND

As most people will know, Queenslander voters almost caused the total annihilation of the old Labor Government. I am afraid that ornamental horticulture wasn’t a top priority in the minds of the previous administration and we can only hope that the new Minister for Agriculture, John McVeigh, will show the same level of support for Amenity Horticulture as did Henry Palaszczuk, who although being a Labor man was a great advocate for the ornamental horticulture industry.

At the end of April there will be Local Government elections and after a number of meetings with current Brisbane Lord Mayor Quirk I can only express the hope that he gets re-elected. If he does I am quite sure that garden lovers will be delighted with the plans that has to make Brisbane a city wher gardens will play a significant role.

STAYING FIT AND HEALTHY

I reckon that for someone my age I’m not doing too bad. I work long hours and often under a lot of pressure, as anyone who has deadlines hanging over them will know only too well. So many people ask me how it is I manage to do this and although I don’t have any commercial arrangements on this website I do feel that I should give credit to the regime that I reckon has kept me in tip top condition for so many years.

I started taking daily doses of Nature Bee capsules many years ago, so long ago in fact that I can’t actually remember the exact year. I give the credit to my health and vigour to those two golden capsules of Nature Bee that I religiously take every morning. In all the years I have been taking Nature Bee I have never had a serious cold. If I feel a cold coming on I simply double the dose for a few days and the cold never develops.

I want to emphasise the fact that I am writing this without the knowledge of the suppliers, nor for any reason other than that I am totally convinced that this food from nature has contributed so much to the good health that both Bev and I enjoy. This is my way of saying -Thanks Nature Bee.

If you want to find out more visit the Nature Bee website.